Bengaluru: Coming to the rescue of tur dal growers, the State government has decided to procure the produce at Rs 5,050 per quintal and sell it through the Public Distribution System at Rs 100 per kg instead of offering it to buffer stocks of the Union government.

The decision was taken by the government as the farmers in the State are suffering losses due to price crash following demonetisation and high yield. The price raw tur dal has come down to Rs 2,800-Rs 3,900 per quintal after the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra, who is also the chairman of the Cabinet sub-committee on Agriculture Produce Pricing, informed that farmers in Bidar, Kalaburagi and Raichur grew tur dal after its price witnessed a huge surge last year. But demonetisation led to crash in the prices of many agriculture crops, he said.

“We have decided to procure the produce from farmers at Rs 5,050 per quintal to bail them out,” he added.